Saturday, June 2, 2012

Tactility Can Save the World

Rainy morning and I’m overdue for a day of drawing, writing, and slowing down. I travelled somewhere for work every week in May, sometimes by air, other times by car. On my last assignment the road sign that I kept seeing and that caught my attention was telling me to watch for moose. It was dusk. I kept an eye out for the big boys.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. Tactility is key for me. Celebrate those senses! Even though I rely on the cyberworld for my livelihood, give me a garden, a kayak, a meal to create or a good flowing pen to write or sketch and I'm a happy girl. One of my favorite things to do is host a dinner party and have friends and family sitting around the table eating good food and drinking good wine by candlelight with the phones/computers are put away. Okay, I'm sure that my kids have been texting in their pockets around that table without my knowing it, but we'll go with my ideal.
My son and step-sons range in age from 18-25. I've actually raised five boys but that's another story. My own son, the older guy grew up on the cusp of all things internet- and- video and my step-sons grew up in the thick of the electronic explosion. It goes without saying that kids born now are immersed in the cyber-culture and communicate differently  than any other generation or humanoid that has ever come before them. Ever. Pause. Just like the climate, the info and electronic explosion is changing how we live on the earth with each other. AI pets? AI mates?
I'm still a believer that it is the little things we do everyday that count, that can have the biggest impact on our human experience. A kiss. Telling your people that you love them. Eating mindfully. Being quiet and listening. Reading aloud. Stretching your body (and mind).
Good parenting is needed to balance a potentially AI (artifically intelligent) world. There's enormous value in  setting aside time during each day when the electronics are put away completely, their off buttons activated (for parents  AND for the kids) to plant seeds or draw with sidewalk chalk or play outside on the monkeybars. A time to eat together and hide the phones and the tablets and talk with one another. To listen to each other's viewpoints and perspectives, each other's goals and dreams or just download the day. 
Did you see the blog entry: Writing  as Curiosity and Healing? I hope you scroll down the page to check that one out too. Read Each Other, this blog, could be about the power of conversation on these topic of tactility and living a creative life. Be the first to write a comment!  
Or, review Each Other, now on iTunes (iBooks), Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Diesel and more!
Time for a steamy cup of java.